Evander Holyfield vs Muhammad Ali.

Actually Ali when Ali started filling out after the first Liston fight, (a natural result of not being 22 anymore) he generally did his best work between 212-218.

Ali's got big advantages over Holyfield, both physically, (longer reach, faster hands and speed) and style wise. A young Ali would dance rings all night, keeping Holyfield on the end of his jab and letting Holyfield run into harder right hands behind it. When Holyfield covers up, Ali hits hit with a flurry to score points. An older Ali alternates between dancing and tying up and wrestling Holyfield inside, which is where Holyfield would have his best chance, but he'd have to outwrestle Ali to do so, and Ali got to be very good at tying his man up.

Furthermore, Holyfield had a slight flaw with his footwork: he unconsciously bounced on his feet a lot. Atlas talked about noticing that in going over film of Holyfield and instructing Moorer to smack Holyfield with the jab as Holyfield was bouncing, this way his rhythmn would be disrupted and he wouldn't be able to get set. Better believe that as much as Ali threw the jab out there, the same thing would be happening.

Lastly, I don't think Holyfield had to power to seriously hurt Ali, not without really loading up for it the way Bowe would let him do the inside, or how he did with that famous series of smashing punches he hit Foreman with. I doubt Ali gives him that time, so Holy being able to damage Ali consistently or severely is probably out.

Holy's best chance would be doing the Ken Norton style block and counter jab, (Ali tended to take an instinctive step back after a jab, so Norton would block it with his crab style defense then respond with a jab of his own while stepping forward. Ali would jab again in response, step back again, and after a few times doing this would be on the ropes, where Norton could open up on him) but defending like this wasn't something a lot of people could do, and Holy may not have the reach for it.

Ali by a pretty clear, (if respectable) UD, in my opinion.

 

Ali by SD, but I would NEVER count out Holyfield because of his warrior spirit and heart.

 

Forget old Ali, and try to remember the Ali who beat Liston or the Ali who beat Cleveland Wiliams and pit him against the best Holy. No contest. Ali best ever...!

 

Good stuff...particularly about Holyfield's bouncing, that apparently was something Manny Steward also instructed Lewis to watch for. I've always maintained that Holyfield is very much a rhythm fighter, and the key is to break that up. You let him get rolling and he's a nightmare.

 

Ali UD.